Another Jager variant brought on by the War of the Alliance, the Flammjäger is a very specialized machine born to meet a particular need. A “house cleaner” or, as the other Gear pilots often call it, a “bug zapper,” the Flammjäger was used in infantry mop-up operations to examine every tank wreck, blockhouse and ruined building to flush out survivors. While standard infantry is generally used in this type of operation, the nature of the genetically engineered GRELs used by the CEF made house-clearing a very dangerous activity indeed. The Flammjäger more than balanced the scales.
All its joints and manipulators are covered with a fire-resistant web covering and a heat dampening glazing was added to the armor plates. The main armament of the Flammjäger is the Firemoth-16 medium flamer, a powerful hand-held weapon. To prevent accidental detonations, the flamer’s fuel tanks can be quickly dropped via a manual release switch. The secondary weapon is a Vogel-120 incendiary rocket pack, which can engulf a widespread area in flames to eradicate all resistance in that particular zone of the battlefield. An anti-personnel grenade launcher, sometimes loaded with incendiary or shrapnel charges, completes the mop-up armament. High explosive hand grenades are also used, but mostly for demolition jobs against blockhouses and other “hard” defensive positions.
Although the Flammjäger did a remarkable job during the war, it is the pilots who are remembered most. Nicknamed "cooks", “chefs,” — or sometimes “gourmets” — they tended to paint distasteful mottoes on their machines, such as “Raw or Well Done?” or “Barbecue Marvel,” and seemingly took a sadistic pleasure in their duties. During the war cycles, Terranovan propagandists encouraged this attitude because it further dehumanized the enemy.
In the aftermath of the struggle, however, several people have spoken out about wartime activities and Flammjäger pilots have become less than popular as a result. Veterans claim that the “cooks” have been made scapegoats for expressing sentiments once encouraged by civilian leaders, but now deemed politically incorrect.
